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Belinda Jeffery’s Collected Recipes

Belinda Jeffery brings together two of her best-loved books, 100 Favourite Recipes and Tried-and-True Recipes, to create a one-stop collection of more than 200 recipes, every one of them mouth-wateringly good. Filled with wonderful, family-friendly dishes for all occasions, from easy midweek dinners and relaxed Sunday-night suppers to irresistible party nibbles, special desserts and sensational cakes, this is a book you'll return to time and time again.

Beautifully illustrated with photographs by Rodney Weidland, this classic collection is a timely reminder of why Belinda Jeffery has become one of Australia’s most respected and cherished cooks.

Photography: Rodney WeidlandPublished by Lantern RRP $39.99

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*Crème fraîche is a type of sour cream with a very delicate flavour and light texture. If you have trouble getting it, you can use regular sour cream, but you’ll find it’s just a little denser and heavier.

Mash the blue cheese until it’s quite smooth. Add the crème fraîche and gently mix them together until they’re just blended.

Halve the figs and put them, cut-side up, onto plates. If they wobble about a bit, just take a tiny sliver off the bottom of them. Plop a spoonful of the blue cheese mixture into the centre of each fig, sprinkle on a few chopped walnuts, then put a tiny pile of prosciutto strips on top. Drizzle them with a little olive oil at the table and grind on some black pepper – it adds a lovely bit of heat and bite that is the perfect contrast to the jammy sweetness of the figs.

I just adore figs, but quite a few people say to me that they don’t see what all the fuss is about. I have a feeling that that’s because it’s hard to get really ripe figs, which is the only way to eat them. Often they’re picked early because they’re too fragile to handle once they are truly ripe and although they look beautiful at this stage, they don’t have that wonderful honeyed heart that is the whole reason for eating them. I rarely go for looks, but tend to pick ones that have already split a little and are heavy for their size. Just be careful, though: if they’re at the point where they’re weeping sticky juice, they could well have fermented. A drop or two of juice indicates that they are perfect for eating straight away, but if they’’re sitting in a little puddle of juice, they most likely have gone a bit too far.

Prepare all the ingredients before you begin cooking, as you would a stir-fry. To prepare the oysters, slide them out of their shells into a bowl and put them aside.

Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk them gently with a fork so they are just mixed. Stir in the coriander, sherry and salt, and set the mixture aside.

Put a small non-stick frying pan over high heat. Once hot, add the oil and swirl it to coat the pan. Tip in the spring onion, ginger, chilli and garlic all at once and stir-fry them for about 15 seconds. Now pour in the eggs and give them a few brisk stirs with the flat of the fork. Quickly scatter 9 of the oysters over the top. Tilt the pan, and lift the edges of the omelette with the fork to let any uncooked egg run underneath. Reduce the heat slightly and leave the omelette to set. The top should still be quite moist; in fact, almost a bit wet.

To serve, you can just slide the omelette onto a warm plate as is, but for something a little more unusual, try moulding it. To do this, slide the omelette into a small heatproof bowl and quickly fold in the sides. Press down gently on top of the omelette to mould it to the shape of the bowl, then cover it with a warm plate. Firmly grasp the sides of the plate and the bowl at the same time, and quickly invert them both. (You need a bit of courage to do this the first time, but it gets much easier.) Remove the bowl and you have a lovely dome-shaped omelette. Put the three remaining shelled oysters on top. Garnish with some of the spring onion tops and the drained chilli shreds, as well as a few oysters in the shell, if you’re using them. Serve immediately.